=On the Sean Hannity Show, Sean opens by unpacking recent political maneuvers, highlighting Bill Maher's rude "awokening" warning on socialism echoed by Zoran Mamdani's rise in Democratic ranks. Daniel Di Martino, a Manhattan Institute fellow, brings a personal story detailing Venezuela's collapse from prosperity to poverty. Sean frames Di Martino's experience as a wake-up call, urging listeners not to ignore socialisms failures and to embrace innovation, like AI, for Americas economic future. This episode stands out for blending real-world testimony with strategic advice, emphasizing why political and technological awareness is vital right now.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
If you want to be a part of the program, it's 800-941 Sean, if you want to join us.
Really fascinating comments and a bit of a history lesson.
Shockingly from Bill Maher.
I mean, really rooted in truth, history, and understanding of reality.
I mean, it sounds great.
Everything's going to be free.
Everything's free, free, free, free, free.
And so he delivered this really profound, in my view, warning about Mamdani and how Democrats must recognize that Zoram Mamdani is the future of the party.
Unfortunately, it's the Republican Party.
And I said when he got elected, he will be the face of the Democratic Party.
AOC now is exerting the power that I've been telling you for years that she really had within Democratic Party ranks.
It's very real.
Pelosi was speaker in name only.
Now Hakeem Jeffries is leader in name only.
Chucky Schumer's leader in name only, and his career is all but finished.
There's announcement today that, in fact, a Mamdani ally has filed paperwork to run against the House minority leader, Hakeem Jeffries.
And Kathy Hochl had to admit, the governor of New York, that she, oh, yeah, I think these Mamdani ideas are really good.
If she wants any shot at reelection, he's basically going to have to bow at the altar of Mamdani because he knows that Mamdani will have enough power to wipe out any chances she has of even being the nominee, never mind winning.
Wouldn't even be surprised if he ran against her and said, you know what, I can't do it as New York mayor.
I really need to be the governor.
And that would be a, you know, that would be the end of New York as we know it.
But just listen to what Bill Maher had to say.
Democrats must recognize that Zorhan Mamdani is the future of the party.
Unfortunately, it's the Republican Party.
We've run this experiment many times, and the results are always obvious.
In 1990, Venezuela was wealthier than Poland, but then Poland, finally free of Soviet-style economics, went all in on capitalism.
And now their economy is as big as Japan, and people there have high wages, low inflation, cars, vacations, homes.
Meanwhile, Venezuela traded capitalism for Hugo Chavez's socialism for the 21st century, which turned out to be like socialism in the last century or any century.
A mess.
It turned one of Latin America's richest countries into one of its poorest.
Low wages, high inflation, shortages, outages, 8 million people fleeing.
If you think New York can somehow reinvent this wheel, you're in for a rude awokening.
A rude awokening.
That's actually, that was not a mistake on his part.
He said it purposefully.
And he's just not wrong.
Daniel P. Martino is a fellow at the Manhattan Institute, immigrant from Venezuela.
I mean, think about Venezuela, Hugo Chavez's socialism.
Venezuela was the richest country in Latin America.
Now it's the poorest.
I'll never forget it was Jorge Ramos that actually went to Venezuela.
Remember that video that he showed of people eating out of garbage cans?
They have so much in terms of natural resources.
They were so wealthy.
They lost an estimated 8 million people that fled that country.
And the idea that somehow this is going to be a game changer.
And again, what is the goal of Grandpa Bernie, AOC, the squad, the new Green Deal Democrats, socialist Marxist Democrats?
They want to implement all of these policies that have been tried and that have failed every time they have been tried.
And every time you get the same predictable results, you know, I wrote that chapter, the history of socialism, a history of failures.
You know, whatever name, whatever form, whatever manifestation it takes on, it always ends the same way.
And that is unfulfilled promises.
People end up being poorer than when they started.
And it also ends in a loss of freedom that people give up in the name of false security.
And you are empowering government to be your savior instead of living with truth, liberty, and freedom and capitalism, which keeps everybody honest and brings out the best in everybody, ideally.
And what's so fascinating to me is we keep going back to dumb and dumber and stupid.
Anyway, Daniel, welcome to the program.
Glad you're here.
Thank you for having me, Sean.
And I remember actually that interview that you referred to with Jorge Ramos and Maduro.
And I also remember how Jorge Ramos a month ago interviewed Mamdani and asked him if he thought Maduro was a dictator.
And then Mamdani didn't say that he was.
He refused to.
Yeah, he didn't.
And what was life for you in Venezuela?
And when did you flee?
I left in 2016.
And look, I think my story is really not remarkable in that it's just a story of a normal middle-class Venezuelan family that in the early 2000s, we made maybe $2,000, $3,000 a month.
And by 2016, when I left, and then my family did, we were making $100 a month.
That is what they did to us.
Yeah.
Well, I mean, for the people, your friends, maybe family that still remain in Venezuela, what's life like for them?
And what was life like before Hugo Chavez?
Well, what it's like is, you know, you go from having a car, going to school, you know, having water, a home, a normal life like even most people in the United States used to have in that time.
And then suddenly there is no electricity for a day.
Suddenly there is no water for maybe a week.
And then you have to carry jugs of water up the stairs to your apartment.
And then suddenly there are no teachers in high school because the teachers are leaving the country.
And so class is dismissed or you have to line up for food sometimes.
And then you have to line up every day.
And life just becomes like going from the first world to the third world.
Yeah.
I mean, and you lived that out.
And you came here in what year?
2016.
And yes, I finished high school in Venezuela.
I was 17 years old when I came.
I remember, you know, I even have a picture of myself holding a huge pack of cash and that was the price of a movie ticket.
People began, and my dad too, we began wearing backpacks and the backpacks would be full of cash because of the hyperinflation, kind of like German in the 1920s.
That's pretty remarkable.
And when you got to the United States, tell me about your life today, because you've been here now nine years.
How has your life changed?
And tell me what you're doing with your life.
I mean, you're at the Manhattan Institute.
Obviously, you're very, you're well educated and obviously you're very smart.
Well, thank you.
Hopefully.
They think so.
Look, what I did is I first went to Indiana and I had never been to the Midwest.
I had come to the U.S. before as a tourist.
But then I moved to Indiana and it was a wonderful time.
I mean, the biggest change immediately was just the safety, right?
Venezuela is a very dangerous country.
And just being able to walk in the street without the fear of being kidnapped or robbed or even just killed was a big quality of life upgrade.
The other upgrade was just how much money was worth.
I remember my first job, I was a receptionist on my college campus.
I was making $11 an hour, Sean.
This was 2016.
And I thought I was a multi-millionaire because that was so difficult to make in Venezuela.
And I remember the first time I withdrew some cash from my checking account and I was just flabbergasted.
Now, obviously, I make much more than that.
But, you know, I have a different appreciation for things, just the basic things of life that I think a lot of Americans take for granted.
And that's why they end up supporting the policies that lead us into the disaster that I fled from.
Were you able to become a citizen at this point?
I assume, yes.
Not yet.
I'm on my permanent residency.
Well, I hope people hear you loud and clear.
I hope people understand it because I can write it down in a book and I can communicate it on radio and TV all I want.
However, it's stories like yours that really bring it home because you lived it.
We really appreciate your time.
Daniel DiMartino, thank you, my friend.
Of course.
Thanks, Sean.
You know, if you listen very closely, Daniel lived it.
I've met many people in my life that have lived it.
The Mamdanis, the squad, the AOCs, the Katie Wilsons, the new Seattle mayor.
You know, this is where they want to take the country, regardless of its history of failure.
Here's AOC claiming Trump voters are pulling her aside, claiming they want to join this.
I don't think so.
I want to say this right now.
I fully welcome Trump voters into our coalition.
And I know that sounds crazy to some people, but just hear me out.
I cannot tell you.
It just happened to me like two weeks ago.
I can't tell you how many times someone has pulled me aside and said either I was once a big Trump voter and a Trump supporter, and I watched Fox News every day, but then I started to kind of expand my world and where I got information.
And now I've learned and now I've changed and I'm with you and I learn from you.
Let's get to our busy phones.
Jordan is in Texas.
God bless Texas.
Jordan, how are you?
Glad you called.
Thanks for checking in, sir.
Yes, sir.
How are you doing today, Sean?
I'm good.
What's going on?
Yes, sir.
So first of all, loved your interview you did with JD Vance around ways of working and AI and everything else.
And I would say that I agree with you that we need to get back to the office, but I want to propose a challenge, if you don't mind, sir.
And that show.
Go right ahead.
By the way, I'm not, I think for government workers, it's important, but I can tell you in my business with my workers and people that work on this show, my team, I know who's working and not working just based on what I see every day.
I don't have to see it.
I know it.
Correct.
And I'm in the consulting business as well.
So I'm right there with you.
Here's what I would say about going back to the office.
It's one thing to go back to the office and do meetings all day.
It's another to be in more of a production society.
And here's what I mean by that.
You rightly point out that AI is here.
It's coming.
My challenge to everyone in corporate America who goes to the office or is working from home right now, think about ways that you can bring insights and strategy to your organization.
Because with Agentic AI coming, I'm seeing a lot of accounting finance back office jobs where Agentic AI can do accounts payable pretty well, right?
It can book travel for you and kind of be an assistant.
So my challenge to Vice President Vance, when he mentioned how there's going to be a lot of high-paying jobs come out of this, I do agree, but people need to start thinking about learning AI, learning about how to improve your current processes and current ways of working today.
And if you are in the office doing that, I'm all for it.
But if we're going back to the office just to be sitting on Teams meetings and Zoom calls all day and writing emails and doing monotonous work, what's the point?
And I think the point is, well, number one, if you're not in the office, it's a great way for your employer to say, eh, are you actually providing the value you need?
And you're probably gone.
Two is when you're in there, what are you actually doing and what value are bringing to the organization?
I love your thoughts on that.
Listen, I want to put it this way because this is how profound a time we're living in.
I want people to view this as this is the, we just discovered electricity moment.
Now, that may sound insane to people at this moment to hear that.
I am telling you, I am not wrong.
I am telling you, you've got to prepare for it.
I am telling young people they're going to be, and people that are in jobs, a lot of jobs are going to be replaced.
The interesting part is I'm very close friends with one of Elon's best friends.
He believes in the end, the net gain of jobs is going to be phenomenal, but it's got to be the right jobs.
So, it's going to be a transitional economy in the next decade.
And I just care too much about all of you in this audience that you be ready and you be prepared.
And frankly, I don't care what industry, what business you're in, you better be adopting AI as part of your daily routine and part of what you do every day because it'll make you better and more efficient.
Anyway, look, there are stories about people that are doing three full-time jobs from home, and they use AI to expedite all of their work, and they do it all successfully, and their employers have no idea what they're doing.
I mean, that's how efficient they have and how sophisticated they've got at it.
Now, they have three full-time paying jobs that they're able to accomplish their tasks, loved employees, great at what they do, but in part, they're getting all of this assistance because of new technology.
I mean, I give them A ⁇ for being creative, don't you?
I completely agree.
Now, you probably don't want to name drop them.
The IRS may be hearing, and they may be coming knock on the doors.
No, no, no, I'm not saying they're not paying their taxes.
I'm just telling you, it is not telling, you know, other employee, their employer, that they're doing two other full-time jobs.
No, I completely agree with you.
I completely agree.
But no, so the point I'm making is exactly what you're making, which is whatever profession you're in, document what you do, document the process of what your job is from start to finish.
Don't just be siloed, sitting behind a keyboard, looking at a spreadsheet all day.
Zoom out, think about the business holistically, think about how you're getting information from your different peers and start putting together a strategy for how you're going to bring AI to your organization.
But don't stop there.
Be the person that is going to say, hey, not only did I think this through, not only did I document this, not only am I bringing this to the organization, but I'm going to lead it because I took the training.
I went the extra mile.
I did night school.
I did whatever.
And I know everything there is to know about this agentic AI.
And I'm going to lead the charge in my department or my organization to adopt this.
Dude, like.
The sooner you adopt and absorb it, the better off you're going to be, and you'll have a competitive advantage.
I just am out of time, though.
I've got to run.
Great points, great calls.
We're going to have a lot more conversations on this in the days and weeks ahead, I promise.
And next year, leading into the midterms.
Anyway, appreciate your call, my friend.
800-941-Shawn is on number more.
Your calls coming up straight ahead.
How much time are you spending on artificial intelligence?
I mean, I hate it, but more than I care to.
What do you mean you hate it?
Why do you hate it?
Well, I feel like what I'd love to do is get people out of their phones, out of their screens, out of all the things.
You know, it's not being used in the way it was intended.
It's making people dumber.
People are having conversations with their phones.
They're having conversations with screens instead of having conversations with each other.
You're having virtual boyfriends and girlfriends.
You know what I'm saying?
Like, it's a whole new, it takes the blow-up doll to a whole new level.
It's just, I don't know.
It's not my thing.
There are virtual relationships that people actually think is real.
It's so bizarre to me.
But, like, you know, I saw this thing the other day.
It was a commercial for ChatGPT.
And don't get me wrong, I've taken things I've written and run it through there and thought, oh, I guess I could say it that way.
But I don't like cut and paste it then.
I like rework it and take ideas from it.
But there's this girl and she can't figure out how to get her schedule right for school, right?
And this, she asked Chat GPT, How can I find time to breathe and center while I'm studying?
Shut up.
You're at school.
Read a book.
Drink a cup of coffee the way we did it.
You know, it's ridiculous.
You're like one of these stubborn, very old people stuck in their ways.
You've got to be in the middle of the day.
I'm not stuck in my ways.
I'm stuck.
I'm stuck in your ways.
You sound like grandma when you said that.
Yes, I don't mind.
I don't mind acclimating.
Acclimation is fine.
Integration is fine.
A complete and utter takeover where it's you and a bot, I'm out.
I'm not about it.
So, like, you're not going to be dating or having a relationship on the happily married.
You're not.
You don't have to children of a relationship with a bot.
I want to meet new friends because I was at a party, because I was at a bar, because I was at a soccer game for my kids or a football game for the kids or whatever.
You know what?
Normal stuff.
Listen, I am telling you, you're going to be the reluctant, resistant grandma in everybody's life, and everyone's going to roll their eyes.
Oh, man, she's stuck in that.
I'm all in then.
I'll take up crocheting.
I'll be the best crocheting grandma you ever met.
I'm all in.
Oh, the greatest crocheting grandma of all time.
That's a great way.
You're a very young person.
But if that's how you're looking at it, I am going to adjust, adapt, embrace technology, and I'm going to do it with enthusiasm for the sake of our audience.
Now, I will tell you one consequence of this is there will be a desire, an innate desire of people to want to return to certain things like crocheting and doing puzzles and just turning off their devices and getting away from all of that.
I think that's called balance.
That, you know, at some point we're going to have to, you know, have that discussion.
Let's get to our phones: 800-941-Sean, our number.
If you want to be a part of the program, David in Florida, David, how are you?
Glad you called, sir.
Well, hi there, Sean.
How are you doing today?
I'm good.
What's going on?
Well, I wanted to tell you about the elephant in the room.
I represent a tool shop that we have apprentices with the Department of Labor.
And it's been 75 years ago we started at.
You know, we talk about the billionaires and the politicians and all that.
But I have taken 10th graders, sophomores, both male and female, through a different business every week with the parents because I'd take the parents along with me.
And they see skilled trades businesses that require like vocational schools, trade schools, and things like that.
And then the other employees help teach those kids in the apprenticeship program.
Any company can start an apprenticeship program with the Department of Labor.
They can handwrite what it is they're going to offer those people to learn in four years.
And in four years, they become a journeyman.
And I work, we're mostly in tool shops here, mostly non-union.
But I worked with a good friend that was in the carpenter's union, and they talked about building houses.
And all these young people and their parents went through to learn about what that takes to do that.
And, you know, these young people are 10th graders, and then they go to vocational school in the 11th and 12th grade.
Then normally they come in and work part-time with us.
And the parents are amazed at the wages that these kids can learn.
Because if you compare that to a college education, a college education, you tell me how much you spend four years getting a bachelor's degree.
And these kids make $50,000 a year for four years in a row, plus we pay for an associate degree.
Now, I think at the age of 22, there's a half a million dollars difference in where these two people are.
And the parents are also very impressed because they've been told all along, if you don't go to college, you'll never amount to anything.
Businesses are willing to invest a huge amount of money to train people so that they're going to be competitive when we bring all these companies from overseas and even the companies we have now.
We're a shortage of housing right now.
Who's going to build those houses?
And that's the Carpenters Union is really great about addressing.
I hate to tell you, I'm going to tell you who's going to build those houses.
Robots are going to build 70% of them, 75% of them.
And I have the videos.
I've seen it.
I'll show it on TV.
Well, you know, who told the robots what to do?
Well, that's a great.
Listen, I'm all in for the trades because, you know, finish work is going to be finished work.
And I'm not sure, you know, they're anywhere near the point where you're going to have, you know, let's put it this way.
I've seen videos of two different technology companies where they can build 70% of the home or almost 100% of the exterior, et cetera, including doing the roofing, doing the framing of the house.
You know, it is more perfect than ever than what any man can ever do.
They can wire the house or do the basic wiring of the house, put in insulation, put up the wallboard, paint the wallboard.
It's that sophisticated.
And that technology exists now.
And I think you're right.
We're down about between four and a half to six million homes in this country that will need to be built.
And I would argue that that probably is going to be the process that we lean into.
Now, who's going to, for example, who's going to repair jet engines for airlines?
Who's going to, I mean, there's going to be the adaptation of all this technology with real life circumstances.
And I think, you know, you're still going to need people that understand construction to make sure that the project's going well.
And you're going to need the guys that go in and, you know, do the finished work.
Do I think eventually that some of those jobs too will be replaced?
Yeah, it's going to be a changing economy.
And I'm not trying to scare people.
I'm just trying to get people in the right mindset that they're going to have to make, they're going to, we're all going to have to adapt.
Let me give you an example of a company that didn't adapt.
You remember Kodak when we were growing up?
Everyone had a little Kodak camera.
Remember all that?
Yeah.
You know what year?
I think they went bankrupt.
Linda, you can look this up.
Ask Rock your favorite thing to do.
I think it was 2012.
You want to know why?
Because they never adopted to the digital age and technology that came with everybody now has the ability to take a picture on their iPhone.
They never adopted.
You know, you look at the introduction of the, you know, for example, there are more ways that people can listen to this radio show than ever before, watch this, my TV show than ever before.
And it's just a matter of being every place and sort of flooding the zone and embracing all of the platforms that are available to us.
And, you know, I'm only saying this for, because I want to really put a lot of time and attention into this for this audience.
Why?
Because I want this audience to be more prepared than anyone else that you might know in life, if that makes sense.
Well, yeah, but I want to tell you something.
You're wrong about some things.
You talk about somebody building houses that are 75% built, but somebody had to decide.
And one person that's skilled now can do the job of five people that used to do it because they still have to address what space they're going to put it in, what their requirements are.
They do all the technical stuff like our tool shop.
They look at a CNC machine and they call it an automatic machine.
It's not an automatic machine.
There's a guy back there that understood how to program that, saw the tolerances, the blueprints, planned the whole thing, programmed the thing so that when it started up, somebody walks by and says, oh my gosh, that machine's running itself.
You know, but yeah, we'll be smarter in the future, but we still have to have the people and the ISO programs at the federal government.
Look, we got a preview of coming attractions.
Did you ever see the old automobile manufacturing assembly lines and you had all the workers on that line, right?
If you look at a line today, what does it look like?
It's mostly all robotics, correct?
But those robots have behind the scenes, yes, you're correct.
But if you look at the actual manual labor, many of those jobs went away.
You do concede that, right?
Well, not in our business.
I mean, the tooling has improved, that's right.
And we can get more done than we used to do.
But the wages have probably increased more than even academia people.
Because it's going to take a new level of sophistication for the people that are going to have those jobs.
And I want this audience to be prepared for it.
I think that's going to be all part of what you're actually saying.
I don't think we're as far apart as you're saying.
But anyway, it's going to be an ongoing discussion.
This is not ending, I promise.
Back to our phones.
Appreciate it, David.
Let's say hi to Lou in Tennessee.
Lou, how are you?
Very fine.
Very fine.
I'd like to talk about Swelwell and his moronic sense of history regarding the White House.
I mean, these people who think that this extension is something bad just mystifies me, Sean.
It absolutely mystifies me.
Don't you have any sense of history regarding what happened in 1812 or Harry Truman having to leave the White House for all those years because he had it renovated or deballed?
It's just stupefying that they're so stupid in their mindset.
They just hate Trump.
Trump derangment syndrome.
Trump lives in their head.
You know, for example, tomorrow, the MBS, the Saudi crown prince, will be at the White House.
Had they had one big, beautiful ballroom, they could have 1,600 people.
If it's raining.
Well, I mean, you make a good point, but there is one room I think that can hold like 150, 200 people max.
And that's it's not, I don't know if it's what room it's actually called in the White House.
I've been in it.
It was kind of where they have their White House Christmas parties, which I have not been to under President Trump, but I went to under my kids wanted to see the White House, so I took them when George Bush was president.
I wasn't invited in the Obama years.
I wasn't invited in the Biden years.
I don't really, I didn't know if I'd ever make it back there, to be honest.
But it's not a place, like, for example, I had an opportunity to go to tomorrow's thing.
I got to work tomorrow.
I can't.
I don't have time to take off.
I got to work.
But yeah, they just hate Trump.
And yeah, we talked about every instance in which the White House had been renovated under every president that renovated it and the impact it's had.
I'm on the Health Insurance Exchange, and prices are just through the roof, as we all know.
So I've been trying to figure out a way what can be done to lower health insurance or to lower health care costs.
And my number one idea is we need to mandate, and I hate that term, but we need to mandate that everyone has an annual physical.
Because if we catch pre-existing conditions early, it's going to drive the cost of health care down by the billions.
I don't know.
Harry Brecker told me, he's in the health, wellness, fitness, nutrition space, that if you live five more years, the odds of you living to be over 100 go up exponentially.
That's going to wrap things up for today.
A great Hannity tonight, 9 Eastern on the Fox News channel.
Eric Trump, Alex Clark, Horace Cooper, Steve Hilton.
We have a major scandal emerging.
Was the fire department in LA told to stand down during the Pacific Palisades fires?
And why can't people get permits to build their homes up?
Also, Dr. Drew Pinsky, Lawrence Jones, LJ, Nine Eastern, DVR tonight.
Hannity, Fox News.
We'll see you tonight back here tomorrow as we give you news and information you won't get from the legacy media mob.
